Monday, December 22, 2008

This afternoon I took the girls sledding at Mt. Chinguacousy. As Alpine as that may sound, the mountain (hill???) is probably man made for the pure purpose of winter recreational sports.

The girls got new smaller sleds with a slightly elevated seating area and just the two runners contacting the surface. I factored this into my calculations when buying the sled and estimated that they would be fast.

Boy were they fast. They were the fastest on the slope, beating all the other sleds by a wide margin. And I already have plans on pimping them out for more speed.

An hour and a half later and my feet were freezing, but the girls were still not willing to get off the slopes.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Gage Park officially opened it's outdoor Skating Rink on the 2nd of December with the Winterlights Celebration and we were down there to celebrate after collecting Lynda from work.

It was cold and we were all bundled up. I did not carry my skate and it was a good thing that I did not. No use in seeing a grown man bumbling along on the ice amidst groups of well honed skaters. The girls enjoyed themselves so much that I had to take them to the Park yesterday as well. In the midst of a blizzard!!!!

It's all fun though. And Layla is actually managing to skate without holding the rails.

Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, but it was dark and all I had was the P&S and no tripod.

Oh. We did get to see the Zamboni doing 180's on the ice. That in itself was worth being off the ice while the Zamboni resurfaced the rink.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Just thought that I'd give a 'shout-out' to my favourite store of all time. The Brampton ReStore is simply amazing and only reinforces that old saying that one man's junk is another man's treasure.

Over the past year, I have got deals that would have otherwise cost 10-20 times as much if I had to buy retail. Best part of this is that all proceeds from the store go to providing housing for the under privileged.

If you're ever in Brampton, stop in. They're on the junction of Glidden & Rutherford.

As visible on the Project Tracker to the side, I have updated Aaliyah's Floor to 60% done. As of yesterday, I had mudded and taped the ceiling, primed and painted the walls and ceiling to match the original colors of the room.

As of this morning I had the Square Buff Sander in and sanded the entire floor with 60 / 80 / 120 grit paper. Sanding the floor was not as painful as lugging the unit in and out of the car as well as up and down the short flight of stairs from our main level to the bedrooms.

As of this evening I was down on my knees, finish sanding the edges with my palm sander and found myself covered in a fine film of Oak sawdust. Pictures of the floor will follow when completed.

Here is the room when we started to what the walls, ceiling & floors look like without the wallpaper and the holes.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Aaliyah's floor had 5 holes drilled through for whatever reason. These had to be plugged prior to sanding. The holes in these houses were generally made using a spade bit. These holes tend to be inaccurate and bear some ovality. The first order of the day, was getting the right tool. One trip to Lee Valley later and I am in possession of a 7/8" Forstner Bit as well as a Tenon/Dowel/Plug Cutter.

Forstner Bits (The Business End)

(Plug/Dowel/Tenon Cutter)

I enlarged the holes using the Forstner Bit which leaves a perfect hole with vertical walls and a square bottom.

Using the Plug Cutter and some spare offcuts of the hardwood, I cut plugs from the Hardwood and then glued them in place ensuring as flush a fit as possible. There are still some small gaps around the holes that were poorly drilled by the PO, but those will be filled with a combination of White Glue and some of the Oak sawdust that I saved when sanding Layla's floor.

Once the floor has been sanded and varnished, you would be hard pressed to find the location of the holes.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

A major part of redoing Aaliyah's floor involved the wood burning fireplace as the PO deemed it prudent (for whatever reasons) to send the chimney stack through the house instead of outside of the house.

Among what was wrong with the install, were the following -

a. Not building the fireplace according to code

b. Sending the stack through the floor and the ceiling

c. Cutting a floor joist without proper support or compensation

d. No fresh air intake anywhere

e. cutting through the roof trusses

This Friday, with Avi's assistance we managed to remove the entire stack and dispose of it at the Brampton dump. Thanks for that Av.

So. here in pictures is what the room looked like and where we are at now.

This morning I happenned upon the most amazing (for the price) light fitting for Aaliyah's room. If you look beyond the strange cooring and the chipped paint, this is a truly spectacular find. I plan to rewire the entire unit with new wires and spray it in Linen/Ivory White. The lampholders have a nice candle-esque look which is the only gold detail on the unit that I plan to retain. Watch this space!!

Last evening Lynda was going over Laylas school work. She was learning about Continents and Countries. After poring over the books, she was still unable to name the third county after Canada and the U.S. in the Continent of North America.

This morning I woke up to the back yard strewn with leaves from the Beech Tree as well as Mr. Mo's Cherry Tree. Knowing that the grass would be wet underfoot, I decided to get out my 6 year old Harley Davidson boots that I didn't mind trashing in the yard.

Wow. Those shoes fit so well. and they even looked better that my Timberlands which are just two years old.

So later when I was sitting at the PC I looked over and saw the shoes where they lay and decided that they were photo worthy. Hence the above pic.

Monday, November 3, 2008

At one of the garage sales of the summer I scored an excellent pair of Antlers that Lynda had been convincing me was all the rage. The only problem that it was mounted on a red felt base. That would've never gone with our bedroom palette.

This evening, with darkness looming on us so quickly, I took the piece in hand, ripped off the felt and then applied drywall compound to the chipboard. I will have to sand and reapply a couple of coats before I get it smooth enough for the primer and 'Linen' white that we have painted the rest of the bedroom accessories in.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Roman Catholic Church observes today as All Souls Day. In Bombay, Mum would make 'Atola' and we would have spent the previous day cleaning and decorating the family graves in Dadar and Bandra.

In our16 years away from our hometown, we've lost more relatives that we'd like.

Listed here in no particular order is a list of my family members that have gone to the great beyond. I remember every moment that I spent with you. For those that I never had a chance to meet, I'm quite sure that you would've only enriched my life....

November 2nd. Daylight savings time is over and I have (well, we all have!) a whole extra hour to waste away blogging. My PC tells me that it is 8 AM, but the clocks in the house that have not been set back as yet tell me that it is 9 AM. Yippee. I am celebrating this with a nice cuppa Joe. Guatemalan Blend for the Barista in you!!!!

Did you know that the Province of Saskatchewan as well as the communities of Pickle Lake and New Onsaburgh in Northern Ontario do not observe DST????

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Layla's floor is now all done with the installation of the baseboards. It was amazingly hard work (lugging the sander out the trunk and up the stairs all but broke my back) But the effort was well worth the trouble. The floor was pretty messed up with holes bored through the floor to pass network & cable wires. I had to cut wood plugs and glue them in place prior to sanding down and laying down three coats of urethane. Quite a difference as the following pictures will show.

This is not me, but indicative of the effort that sanding the floor was. Maybe the above pic is a tad bit over dramatized!!!

The floor with the room emptied and the baseboards removed

Holes

More holes

Very odd shaped holesMissing sub floor and damaged strips

I do not even know what this is

The floor with 3 coats of urethane and 6" high baseboards

The floor in natural light, prior to bringing the furniture in. As Martha would say. "It's a good thing"